A Scottish immigrant to Illinois, Joseph Brown made his pre-Civil War fortune as a miller and steamboat captain who dabbled in riverboat design and the politics

From 1861 to 1865, the American Civil War saw numerous technological innovations in warfare--chief among them was the ironclad warship. Based on the Official Re

Lasting from 1861 to 1865, the Civil War pitted brother against brother and resulted in the deaths of well over 600,000 soldiers. This encyclopedia provides inf

Once the Union Army gained control of the upper rivers of the Mississippi Valley during the first half of 1862, slow and heavy ironclads proved ineffective in p